Melania Trump doesn’t understand why the media wants to talk so much about her nude photographs. We know this from one of the short videos she has released on her social media, talking about her nude photographs – a subject that no one had raised, except her, now, having brought it up while promoting her forthcoming memoir.

“Why do I stand proudly behind my nude modelling work?” the former first lady asks in the video, as though repeating the question of an unseen interlocutor. “The more pressing question is, ‘Why has the media chosen to scrutinise my celebration of the human form in a fashion photo shoot? Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?’”

Mrs Trump goes on: “Throughout history, master artists have revered the human shape, evoking profound emotions.” What’s more, “We should honour our bodies and embrace the timeless tradition of using art as a powerful means of self-expression.”

It is a truly heroic rebranding of a lad mag shoot.

In 2000, she posed nude for GQ, in a tableau that most would struggle to describe as artistic. The photographs were taken on her husband’s private jet. They have a vaguely James Bond air.

In one, Melania lies naked (but for her diamonds) on a fur rug, handcuffed to a briefcase. In another, she stands beside the jet wearing sunglasses and a red g-string, pointing a golden revolver at someone (something?) just out of shot. She is also photographed on a white leather couch, again with the golden revolver, with the briefcase open. Jewels spill from it.

Melania Trump........

© Brisbane Times